When
President Obama criticized tax breaks for big oil companies during his address
to Congress about job creation, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) lashed out: "[S]ingling out and ridiculing tax
breaks for oil companies while touting tax credits for renewable energy doesn't
move us any closer to the kind of fundamental tax reform we need to stimulate
real economic growth and job creation."

Yesterday,
Coburn sent a letter to the Joint
Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the so-called "super committee" tasked
with coming up with a plan to reduce the deficit) outlining "twelve proposals
to eliminate and reform government spending through the tax code." Coburn's
proposals include things like ending tax credits that encourage energy
efficiency and placing a five-year cap on the Earned Income Tax Credit. He even
includes $11 million in savings over ten years from ending the "Tackle Box Tax
Break," a perfect example of the kind of obscure, tiny savings that Coburn uses
to promote himself as a tireless scourge of wasteful spending but that would
actually do pretty much nothing to reduce the deficit.

Meanwhile,
there's a glaring omission from Coburn's letter: tax breaks for big oil companies, which Coburn wants to
retain. The oil and gas industry is Coburn's third-largest source of
campaign funds, and Coburn wants to leave in place tax breaks that give the
five biggest oil companies $21 billion over ten years. What might a senator who wasn't beholden
to Big Oil say about Tom Coburn's approach? Maybe something like this: "Singling
out and ridiculing tax breaks for tackle box manufacturers while defending tax
breaks for big oil companies doesn't move us any closer to the kind of
fundamental tax reform we need to stimulate real economic growth and job creation."

Coburn's
omission of the oil company tax breaks from his recommendations is further
evidence that his criticism of Obama was disingenuous at best. He doesn't
actually mind "singling out" specific breaks for ridicule, or partial solutions
that "don't move us any closer to ... fundamental tax reform." He just wants to
protect the oil companies that helped him become a senator.